A conference committee has softened a limit on the number of bills that can be bundled together in the Kansas Legislature. Bundling is used in the final days of the session to get bills passed in time
But the House passed a limit on the process, saying legislators could only put a maximum of two bills together into one. Stephen Koranda reports on the compromise lawmakers found...
House members were concerned that bundling too many bills together makes legislation that’s difficult to understand. The negotiators agreed to allow up to five bills to be combined into one. Senators were concerned that the two-bill limit would mean there wouldn’t be enough legislation to carry all the bills they wanted in the final days of the session. Republican Jeff King is the Senate vice president.
"Sometimes historically they've had 17 bills together. That's ridiculous. We don’t want to do anything like that. We wanted a reasonable limit, but we didn’t want to handcuff our committee chairs and vice chairs from being able to get good bills into law,” says King.
The agreement also says a couple committees in each chamber are exempt from the rule. Both chambers will now have to vote on the compromise.
